She worked since I was very young. So, instead of her, grandma raised my sister and me and did most of house works including cooking. Mom cooked much less times than normal housewives, and even worse, she didn’t seem to have any interest in cooking. '

But, today, mom made a salad for me.

Grandma is in hospital being taken care by nurses, since she got frail rapidly recently. It means no body is in charge of cooking in this family. I know how to cook, but presumably, with a genetical reason, I don’t enjoy it alike mom.

I was so happy to spot the salad in the refrigerator. But soon I realized that, there is nothing but salad. Bleak. Nothing.

Luckily or unluckily, there was only just-made rice in the rice-cooker.

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I wanted to have something fatty and starchy. That idea led me to chewy cheese on bread, Pizza.

On the way home, My b-friend and I parked the cark at a parking lot middle of downtown.(it was near Kyungsung university in Busan). It was around 9:30, late for dinner for Korean. holding hunger, we wanted to try something new like hungry adventurers.

Imsil cheese pizza, very wellknown brand but rarely found, caught our eyes, so we hurriedly enter into it. Oh god, it was closed. The staff said it finished at 10 to dismay.

On opposite side of road, we saw the red sign glaring. Our eyes glared. We soon recognized it Pizzahut. One of the most popular places, the oldest franchise pizza shops in Korea.

I used to eat pizza at Pizzahut frequently 10 years ago. There were hardly optional places to have pizza in my village in the past. And I liked its new western food, pizza itself. But now, I disliked its outdated image of the pizza hut. Whether liking it or not, at that time, late at night, I was just craving for pizza itself.

Pizzahut

Entering the shop, we checked the closing time. The sign on the door says it closes at 11 to relief. A young staff greeted us cheerfully. We sat on a window-by table and flung open the menu book. Our eyes started prowling about. The staff, staring at us, all of a sudden, called us calmly. With a grin, she recommended us the smart dinner set proudly.

Smart dinner set? I’ve heard of smart lunch, but never smart dinner.
I look through the menu description on the book.

Smart Dinner

It’s available from 5 pm on only weekdays. It consists of ‘the special pizza’, pasta and a refillable salad bowl for two.It only costs you 24,000 for all of them.

You can choose one pizza among ‘so hot chicken’, ‘cream chicken’, ‘bazil seafood’, ‘tender beef’. and ‘camangber’, and one pasta among ‘baked meatball’, ‘baked carbonara’, ‘rich cheese’, and more pasta options available if you pay extra 2,000won. If you are three people, you pay 2,500 won more for salad.

Be aware :No drink is included.No Discount(by credit card, mobile card) applied.(If you have 20% discount method, Smart dinner is unnecessary, but if you don’t have any discountable things, you must use it.)

We ordered Cream chicken pizza, Rich cheese pasta, Salad and a glass of coke. After 20 minutes, all food was served and looked so yummy. The pizza was good, the pasta was good. In terms of salad, there were new menus. Yuzu jelly, Caramelized Sweet potato, Passion fruits, and Cozze. I was so glad to spot Caramelized sweet potato(Goguma matting), and I piled it up on the plate like a rocky mountain and brought to the table.

I was really satisfied with pizzahut there. I liked all dish we ate. I was happy with its thin dough of the pizza and thick layers of cheese on the pasta and, especially newly added salad menu, Caramelized sweet potato(Goguma mattang).

Haha. It’s quite weird to recommend a side dish of the restaurant.
Why not? You must try it there.

As tradition, I had rice cake pasta soup, tteokguk, this morning.I also ate special foods eaten only on occasion.After eating breakfast, I bowed to our grandma and parents.I used to get some money from them.But I am old enough not to have it, a bit sad.

I went to Sajik farmer's market with my mom and sister.We need ricke cake and some fruit.We were able to buy them at the discount store.But we all like walking through the market feeling the lively atmosphere.Just Like a little me.

First, We looked for our first target, rice cake.There were several rice cake stores. But this store seems to sell the freshest rice cake just out of the steamer.Also, it was so very crowded by a throng of people.Mom bought two loaves of rice cake. (It's 5000won, each.)

Next, we bought sweet rice drink called 'Sikhye'. My grandma used to make it at home,
but this year, she is not healthy enough to do it, sadly.

I am not that fond of it, so I didn't notice there were no sikhye prepared.My sister reminded us of the tradition of drinking sikhye. Mom and I first hesitated. Mom is not a big fan of sikhye, either. But Sister wanted to buy it for visitors and for herself. We ended up buying one hottle of sikhye. (As shown, it's 3000won for one bottle.)

Lastly, at the end of the market alley, we found the fruit store with vivid, luminous colors of fruits.

Mom bought some mandarines I love mandarines, especially small sized one with thin peel,
that's usually sweeter than others.I feel like I have already eaten 10 kgs of it this winter.But I want to eat it more and more. I am crazy for a mandarine.

Mom also bought a few pears.Pears ripens and get harvested in autumn, so it's not in season now. Not in season means Very expensive. (1 pear : upto 3,000won)But it is one of food used in the ancestral rite at the new year.So, in spite of its high price, Korean buy pears every traditional holiday.(I will handle this issue on another post later.)

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On the way home, swirling steam blurred my sight.
I stopped to figure where it was from. It was from the ventilator of the rice mill.

I thought the rice mill was almost shut up, completely close, since its light inside was often off. It hadn’t displayed any stuff quite long time.

But today, Surprisingly, small carts was laid in line in front of the rice mill to wait for its turn. I looked around standing there, and I spotted some women who seemed to be owners of those carts chattering with each other.

They must wait for their white long bar rice cake to make rice cake soup on the new year day. And thinking that we already prepared the rice cake ingredients, my mom by herself did it for us waiting in line.